Banes and Warstones
A bane is a declared siege. Plant a Warstone outside a city, and when the bane goes live, its walls and Heartwood can fall.
Declaring a bane
- Buy a Warstone Claim from a Steward. Claims come in ranks I to VIII, and the claim must be at least the rank of the target city's Heartwood.
- Stand in the ring of ground just outside the target city's grid.
- Double-click the Warstone Claim. A window says which city it would bane and asks you to confirm — or, if you are not on a ring, how far away and in which direction the nearest one is.
- Confirm, and a Warstone of the claim's rank rises: the city is baned.
| Claim | Price | Warstone health |
|---|---|---|
| I | 500 | 50,000 |
| II | 1,000 | 220,000 |
| III | 2,000 | 390,000 |
| IV | 4,000 | 560,000 |
| V | 8,000 | 730,000 |
| VI | 16,000 | 900,000 |
| VII | 32,000 | 1,070,000 |
| VIII | 64,000 | 1,240,000 |
- You must belong to a guild, and cannot bane a city of your own guild or your own nation.
- A city can carry only one bane at a time, and cannot be baned again for 24 hours after one ends.
- A bane cannot be called off: once the Warstone stands, it ends only when the Warstone or the Heartwood falls.
- While a Warstone stands against a city, its Heartwood cannot be ranked up.
- Select the Warstone and press F to open its window: both sides, both ranks, the phase and the countdown in your own time.
When the fighting starts
The defenders choose when the bane goes live. Their Inner Council or Guild Leader opens the City tab of the build bar (or the Warstone's window) and presses Choose the time: pick anything from 1 to 48 hours ahead — the window shows the day and hour in your own time — and confirm. The time can be set once, and only before the bane goes live. If nobody sets it, the bane goes live 24 hours after the Warstone was placed. (/banetime and a number of hours, with the Warstone selected, does the same.)
Keeping track
- While your guild is a side of any bane, a pill at the top of the screen shows it and counts down; click it to open the Warstone's window.
- Both guilds are told when a Warstone is raised, when the time is chosen, an hour and ten minutes before it begins, when it begins, and when it ends — on screen and in guild chat.
- The City tab lists every siege your guild is part of, first thing on the tab.
- The world map's Sieges layer marks every besieged city: gold while pending, bright gold once scheduled, red while live. Hover for the sides and the countdown; click to open the Warstone's window.
- Walking into the grid of a live siege, a banner warns you that protection is void there.
While the bane is live
- The whole city grid is baned: protection contracts stop counting there and buildings take far more damage.
- The Warstone itself can now be attacked, by weapons, arrows and siege engines alike. It cannot be harmed before the bane is live. A high-rank Warstone is a fortress in itself: bring siege engines.
- The city's guards defend every building that is hit, the Heartwood included.
- The defenders win by destroying the Warstone. That ends the bane, and the city cannot be baned again for 24 hours.
- The attackers win by destroying the Heartwood.
Feeding a siege
Defenders fight on their own homeland and recover faster there. A besieging crowd of more than fifty is short of food unless it brings its own: the attacking guild's leaders can raise a siege camp from their Warstone's window and fill it with food. See Homeland and supply.